California Cutie Chicken

California Cutie Chicken

My 8 hour layover wasn’t so bad. In situations like that, you just need to accept it. No sense getting frustrated about it. I didn’t want to spoil my attitude, especially after having such a nice first class flight from Moscow to Washington. My flight from Washington to Chicago was also first class, but uneventful. It was a short enough flight that there was no meal service or anything special. They gave us drinks while the other people were boarding, but that was about the extent to the special treatment. Perhaps I was already getting used to the extra space to feel comfortable in. My flight from Chicago to Los Angeles would bring me back down to earth. (pun intended)

The plane from Chicago to Los Angeles was a 2-class airplane, so there was no first class exactly. The business class seat that I was in was very small, and strangely enough, short. I mean the back of the seat only came half-way up my back. It didn’t make a lot of sense to me. The only noticeable difference I could tell is that the seats each had an arm rest instead of a shared arm rest between the seats. Coincidentally a friend who is an etiquette coach had just posted about an article she read regarding the shared arm rest etiquette. Etiquette on airline flights is getting thin these days. So I guess it qualifies as luxury and justifies charging twice as much for a plane ticket if you give a person their own arm rest. Needless to say, holding a first class ticket, I was a bit disappointed about being crammed in with the cattle again. The meal was inedible, and I was just looking forward to getting home at this point.

I landed in Los Angeles 10 minutes after the last flight from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara left. The next flight would be in the morning, 8 hours later. Having an international first class ticket did give me access to the Red Carpet Club, except that when I showed up, they were closing 10 minutes later. I had just enough time to use their bathroom and change my shirt and clean up a little. Walking out I was able to grab a cup of ice water, but that was it.

I didn’t mind so much. I kind-of knew I was going be stuck in LAX for 8 hours, so I was prepared for it. I headed to the gate and found an electrical outlet and got comfortable. I wrote the post about my flight to Washington and wasted some time. Around 4:30 in the morning I started to see some people walking around and the terminal was starting to wake up. My flight was at 7:20 but I decided to go walk back towards the center of the terminal where the Red Carpet Club is. As I got there, sure enough the RCC was opening at 5:00 am. I might actually get to spend the last couple hours inside. Great.

I expected that the Red Carpet Club would be nearly empty, being an elite club, and esecially being so early in the morning. I was wrong. The club inside was actually quite big. There was 2 separate large areas where people could sit, and of course the meeting rooms. I handed the man at the entry my boarding pass for my first class flight from Moscow to Washington, which I was told to hang onto for RCC entry. He told me that it would only allow me entry on the same day as my flight. I told him that I was still on the same itinerary getting home, and he told me he would allow me in. I guess he is the almighty gatekeeper. I didn’t care much for his attitude. Anyway, I walked in.

In the center of the main room was a large round table with lots of various newspapers. I picked one up and found a seat and parked my carry-on bag next to it. I walked over to the coffee bar where they had a few different kinds of coffee drinks available.  I grabbed a normal black coffee and went to read my newspaper. The Club also had a rolling toaster where you put the bread on a conveyor belt and the toast disappeared into the toaster and came out the bottom toasted. Only problem was that it took 3 trips for the bread to be actually toasted. I didn’t mind too much but I felt a little selfish putting the bread on the belt again as people were looking around like they wanted some toast too. I felt better when one guy said to me, “If I counted all the hours I’ve spent waiting for this exact toaster to work, my time would already pay for a new toaster”.  I felt comfortable in the Red Carpet Club even though I was quite surprised how many people were there and how big it was. I don’t think I would be too happy if I had to kill a few hours in there during the peak time.

The last couple of hours went by quickly. I read the paper, had some toast and fresh orange juice (although not out of a vending machine like the fresh orange juice in Moscow was) and of course some coffee to help me get through the last couple hours of my journey home.

While I was waiting to board the last flight from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara, the two TSA agents and I were talking about the various planes. More specifically we were talking about how cool the Airbus A380 is. Now that I have flown first class at least once in my life, my new goal is to fly first class on an A380. The Airbus A380 is currently the largest passenger airliner in the world. I think there’s a military cargo plane that’s slightly bigger, but nothing for the general public. Looking around on the internet, some of these planes have been really outfitted with luxury, especially the Emirates airlines. I saw that Lufthansa just bought one too, so I’ll have to look at the schedule and see if I can get a route that puts me on the A380 one of these trips.

Unfortunately, my last leg of this trip was not going to be on an A380. I would be on one of the smallest passenger airplanes, an Embraer. The gate agent said the flight was almost empty so he had to rearrange the seating a bit to balance the weight for the flight. I asked him to put me in row 9, aisle. I had taken this flight enough times that I knew exactly which row was the emergency exit, and that usually they didn’t put anybody next to me if I sat there. It made the trip on the impossibly small airplane bearable.

Next comes the life-changing embarrassing part. I debated a little about writing about this experience, but I have decided that it’s something I should share, because I’m done hiding from myself and denying the what’s right under my own nose. Anyway, it’s a little funny.

The last few times I have flown, my weight has varied. So, sometimes I need a seat belt extension. Those short seat belts that the flight attendants use to demonstrate how to fasten your seat belt and open the latch can also be used to extend the length of the belts in the seats. Like I said, usually I have no problem and don’t need one, however on this small plane I needed an extension this time. Of course I don’t need to extend the belt the complete length of the added extension, I just needed an extra inch to fasten the belt comfortably.

The gate agent came out and boarded the plane and then asked me if I needed an extension. I replied yeah sure, and then she informed me that as of March 1st, they had a new rule that people who need an extension are not allowed to sit in exit rows. Really? It became quite a humiliating scene, even though none of the other 9 passengers were saying anything. I felt like I was being escorted off the plane for being a criminal or something. I wasn’t actually escorted off the plane, I was just forced to sit in row 3, which then meant my carry-on would not fit under the seat in front of me. One glance and the flight attendant suggested that I buckle my bag into the empty seat behind me. Phew, nuclear anger avoided.

I calmed down and told myself that my trip was almost over. I took a few pictures of the hills outside the window, recognizing the coast near home. I was getting excited to be back in California, and looking forward to all the great pictures I would be able to take this Summer. I also made my life-changing decision, and I’m going to share it with you all now.

I should start off by saying I am healthy. My doctor tells me my cholesterol level is great, my blood pressure is only slightly high, and that my heart is strong. I don’t have any of the medical problems normally associated with obesity. Technically, I am obese. I want to qualify that statement a little though. I remember going for a professional body fat percentage test where they hooked me up to a million electrodes and did their tests. The results came back that my total lean body mass (counting 0% body FAT) weighed more than the highest level of the government’s target weight chart for my age and height. It’s simply not possible for me to ever be in what the government calls my healthy weight range. But I’m not using that as an excuse.

I am healthy and pretty happy with myself usually. It really doesn’t bother me too much that I am so big. Yeah, I knock things over sometimes, and I usually look for the strongest chair in a room before sitting down, but I enjoy life and my size hasn’t been too much of a problem before. I even have a girl who loves me just the way I am. Now that I am encountering problems like this flight, I know it’s time to do something about my weight. I love traveling – I really do. And if I plan on traveling more, I can’t gain any more weight, and I really should lose some weight. I’m getting married soon, and I should lose some weight anyway for the pictures, right?

So to all of you, I am declaring my new mission statement. I still love to cook. I still love to eat. I will always have great flavor in my life. Now comes the challenge. I will be looking for recipes that will have tons of flavor, and also help me towards my goal. And here it is… I am going to lose 75 pounds in 5 months. In the interest of full disclosure, Last year I weighed 398 pounds. Yeah that’s real close to 400, and I decided to lose some weight. I dropped 45 pounds in 2 months. now it looks like I’ve gained about 20 back not paying attention. I am deciding that instead of being afraid of 400, I’m going to aim for 299. I currently weight 374 pounds, that means 299 will be my goal, 75 pounds lighter, and I am going to do it this Summer. My birthday is September 11th, and if I meet my goal by my birthday, I will allow myself something special. In any case, there is my declaration, and I hope you will follow me through this goal.

Back to getting home. My mother picked me up at the airport in Santa Barbara, and since she rarely drives the 30 minutes from Solvang, she wanted to go to Trader Joe’s for some shopping. We went, and picked up some nice organic ingredients. She said she missed my cooking and was looking forward to me cooking something, anything.

One of the things I saw there was a beautiful bag of California mandarin oranges. They were called little cuties. Mandarins have a great flavor and I knew that we could even squeeze them for juice if they all didn’t get eaten as snacks. Well I found an even better use for some of them. California Cutie Chicken.

The ingredient list is very simple:

1 large boneless chicken breast
1/2 red onion
1 bell pepper (orange if possible)
1 tablespoon Soy Sauce
5-6 mandarin oranges
flour for dredging

Always start off by rinsing chicken thoroughly and then drying it with paper towels. We must always keep chicken clean, and any surfaces the raw chicken comes into contact with also clean.

Cut the chicken into small strips and then into small pieces.

Next, prepare the bell pepper by cutting off both ends, then use your knife to fillet the inside of the bell pepper, cutting out the seed and waxy skin with the ribs out all in one cut. Cut the bell pepper into strips.

Next, dice 1/2 of a large red onion into small dice.

Now take a small bowl and put some flour in it. Heat 2Tbsp of canola oil in a large pan until it starts to shimmer. Take each piece of chicken and dredge it in the flour, shaking off the excess flour.

When the oil is hot, begin dropping the chicken pieces into the pan and brown the chicken, stirring occasionally to brown all sides.

After the chicken is browned, add the diced red onion and the strips of bell peppers. Cook for 2-3 minutes until the vegetables just start to soften.

The chicken, the red onion, and the bell pepper flavors will all start to blend together.

Now comes the flavor blast! get your little cuties and cut them in half. I use 5-6 depending on the thickness of the sauce. It’s important to understand that the flour that we dredged the chicken in will thicken any liquid we put into the pan now. The canola oil and the flour combines and acts like a roux. So this gives us lots of opportunities to create flavor and suspend it in a sauce.

So grab your juicer and begin adding juice to the pan. make sure your pan is not too hot that all the liquid just evaporates as you add it. The chicken is cooked by now so you can turn the heat on the pan to medium-low to finish this dish.

When the juice is added, stir to combine and you will notice the juice will begin to thicken and form a sauce. Add 1 Tbsp of Soy Sauce.

Serve the chicken on top of rice and enjoy. This is a very low calorie meal with huge flavor. It’s amazing what you can make when you pick up a little cutie in the market.

Enjoy this recipe, the first of what I hope will be a long line of healthy and flavorful alternatives to the junk food we are offered every day. I know I’ve made a bold declaration here today about losing 75 pounds before my birthday, and I know it will be difficult at times since I love great flavors so much, but I don’t think it has to be one or the other – healthy or flavorful. With a little creativity and some great ingredients we can have both. If I hope to travel and be comfortable, I need to do it. No more repeats of the humiliating last leg of my trip back to California. Come along for the ride. Cook flavor, or don’t cook at all.